The internationally renowned sculptor Angus Taylor is the 2017 winner of the Helgaard Steyn Award, one of the most substantial prizes within the South African arts scene dedicated to the promotion of art and culture in South Africa. The award is made in a quadrennial cycle for best performance in literature, musical composition, painting and sculptural works. This year the Award is for approximately R575 000 and any South African born artist is eligible to enter. The prize is awarded for a work of art, in the opinion of the adjudicators, to be the most meritorious in the discipline, provided it was produced in the past four years and that the work is accessible to the South African public.

Taylor, born in Johannesburg in 1970, won his first big award in 1994 when he was announced the winner of the prestigious PPC National Young Sculptor Award. He studied fine arts at the University of Pretoria and graduated in 1997 cum laude. Taylor is best known for his contribution to public art in South Africa. He often takes on projects that are challenging, not only testing his own physical ability in the process, but also questioning the inherent limitations of scale and the materials he utilizes. He is a strong advocate of the anti-monument and the idea that art should not intimidate the viewer. This is also his point of departure when he conceptualises new sculpture, therefore not only making the work more accessible to a wider audience, but creating sculpture that often invites playful interaction.

Taylor stated that he realized what it is to be a South African when he went to New York in 2001 (cf. Everard Read Catalogue, 2002). He then stated that "You can only write poetry in a language you know". Partly for financial reasons, he started making works of art out of local stone and earth. He sources Belfast granite and red Jasper and uses the orange earth of the Witwatersand, which he binds with an alumina-based fondue cement. He has also been known to use perishable materials like thatch. Whether he makes a work in a particular location, he will often use the material from that environment. His use of these materials soon became fundamental to the meaning of the work. The history of the earth – geologically and historically – speaks through the images he creates. When he uses the iron ore that comes from meteorites, or rock that comes from volcanic ash, he connects this with the meaning and content of the work. He has also been known to use ancient techniques for binding earth, using animal blood, egg and lime.

The three adjudicators for the award, Angela de Jesus of the University of the Free State, Prof. Rita Swanepoel from North West University and Annali Dempsey, curator of the University of Johannesburg Gallery, were unanimous in their choice of Taylor's monumental sculpture, titled Dionysus as the winner of the award. The sculpture is carved in Belfast granite, a gabbro, dating back more than two billion years. It is an extremely dense stone that is difficult to carve. The reclining figure measures 4.1 metres in height (the figure would have been 8.2m tall if he were standing) and 6.2m width. He weighs between 25 and 30 tons, and is located at the Tokara Wine Estate in Stellenbosch. The sculpture can be visited in groups by appointment through the IS Art Gallery.

It took Taylor 12 months to complete the sculpture. This included the conceptualisation and the modelling of a maquette, followed by the modelling of a scale model, and finally, upscaling the sculpture to its current size. The detailed elements were then once again modelled in clay. This was followed by the production of a steel mesh mould, which was welded onto the clay, and later used for carving the stone to shape the figure.

Although the detail elements (i.e. hands, feet, face, elbows and knees) were carved at his sculpture studio in Pretoria, the actual installation in Stellenbosch entailed 8 weeks of on-site building and carving, which was done in a variety of weather conditions. The amount of time, physical input and work that was invested in making this sculpture, complemented by the sheer scale of Dionysus, makes Angus Taylor a worthy winner of 2017 Helgaard Steyn Award for sculpture.

Artist statement by Angus Taylor

In the endeavour to make and exhibit art, I mostly follow two opposing approaches concerning the external world.

In the first approach I have a healthy, but strong disregard towards everything outside my creative autonomy. When engaging with local and natural materials, the process often has, even to me, surprising outcomes.

I seek in the unknown and throughout this process, I create. When looking at the visual manifestations (the artworks) of this ongoing search, I am able to consider whether I have discovered something new and determine what it is that I have discovered. These beacons, pointers or markers then enter the world of others.

My first approach is more focussed on personal discovery. The external positive and negative feedback should remain just so, namely on the outside. For this reason, both enthusiastic appreciation and passionate disapproval are equally unimportant or irrelevant.

On the other hand, the Sotho saying Motho ke motho ka batho babang (a person is a person because of other people) is also relevant and even more so within the context where my studio thrives off the energy of a collective. Human beings are considered the most social animals on earth which leads me to believe that, if what you put into the external world (your artworks) are not understood, or in some way appreciated, or communicates to others ineffectively, then they are failures. If the artworks leave you numb, fail to stimulate a single synapse or turn something in your gut, they do not work.

However, an artwork that speaks without words can convey an understanding of the visceral nature of being, or entice contemplation, which, in turn, enables us to find more clarity and meaning. It gives depth to our life experiences. This is what I hope to achieve and receiving an accolade such as the Helgaard Steyn Award for Sculpture tells me that I, for some part at least, have succeeded somewhere along the way. This inspires me to continue seeking and sharing. Thank you to the Helgaard Steyn Trust for this incredible award.

About the Helgaard Steyn Trust

The Helgaard Steyn Trust was established in the estate of Dr J H Steyn (1902-1983) and named after his father, once MPC for Bloemfontein and the youngest brother of M T Steyn, the last president of the former Republic of the Free State. The current trustees are Me Hanneli Rupert-Koegelenberg, Mr Gerard Rupert, Mr Francois van der Merwe and ABSA TRUST LTD. The venue of presentation of the award alternates between Bloemfontein and Potchefstroom, due to the previous affiliations of the Steyn family. The vice-chancellors of the North West University (Potchefstroom Campus) and the University of the Free State are tasked annually to each appoint an adjudicator, while the third adjudicator is appointed by the two adjudicators of the NWU and the UFS. Each relevant year nominations are called for by way of public notification inter alia to directors and curators of public art museums and galleries. The adjudicators then have to choose the winner from the nominated artists.